Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani (born April 19, 1957 in Aden, Yemen) is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman, managing director and the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company. His personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%] His wealth was US$20.1 billion in March 2007 (as per Forbes), making him the world's 14th richest person and the second richest person in India. However, his wealth was valued at US$55.8 billion in October 2007 taking into account his holding in Reliance Industries and group companies. This made Ambani the richest Indian, ahead of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. On 29th October 2007, as a result of a strong share price rally in his group companies, Ambani was thought to have become the richest man in the world with a net worth of $63.2 billion, as reported by news media in India. . However, this claim was refuted by Reliance Industries, which said that the calculations regarding his wealth were inaccurateMukesh and younger brother Anil are sons of the late founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirubhai Ambani.

Career

Mukesh Ambani joined Reliance in 1981 and initiated Reliance's backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals. In this process, he directed the creation of 60 new, world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that have raised Reliance's manufacturing capacities from less than a million tonnes to twelve million tonnes per year.

He directed and led the creation of the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, with a present capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure, at an investment of Rs 100000 crore (nearly $26 billion USD).

Mukesh Ambani set up one of the largest telecommunications companies in India in the form of Reliance Communications (formerly Reliance Infocomm) Limited. However, Reliance Infocom now is under ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) post the brothers' split.

Mukesh Ambani is also steering Reliance's initiatives in a world scale, offshore, deep water oil and gas exploration and production program, a pan-India petroleum retail network involving 5,800 outlets and a research-led life sciences initiative covering medical, plant and industrial biotechnology.

Wealth

The combined market capitalization of the four Mukesh Ambani Group companies Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum (RPL), IPCL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd (RIIL) has crossed the Rs 500,000 crore mark. The total promoter holding in these companies is worth over Rs 200,000 crore (US$ 50 billion). On 26th Sept 2007, Ambani was declared 5th richest person in the world, next to Carlos Slim Helú, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

As of 5th October 2007, his net worth was calculated at $55.8 billion, making him world's 3rd wealthiest person after Carlos Slim Helú ($68b) and Bill Gates ($59b).
On 29th October 2007, as a result of a rally in the share prices of his companies, Ambani was declared the richest man in the world by the Indian news media, who pegged his net worth at US$63.2 billion. However, Reliance Industries clarified a day later that Ambani was not the richest man in the world, and that calculations regarding his wealth were incorrect.